Issue 01NotesCPH
Conflicts of interest: spot them before they become a complaint
The handbook is written like policy. It is examined like scenarios — so learn the pattern, not the paragraph.
A conflict of interest exists whenever your interests, or your firm's, could reasonably be seen to influence a recommendation to a client.
The test is not whether you were influenced. It is whether a reasonable person would think you might have been.
The shortcut: identify, disclose, manage, document. Four steps, in that order, and most scenario answers are one of them.
The trap: disclosure alone is not always enough. Some conflicts have to be avoided or the activity declined entirely.